


One of Ours

by MikaUriah



Category: Castle
Genre: Case Fic, Mystery, Police
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-16
Updated: 2012-06-15
Packaged: 2017-11-07 20:39:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/435205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikaUriah/pseuds/MikaUriah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A case they don't normally handle in homicide: a rape with a living victim. Is tossed on the desk of Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito, would they be able to hand solving it? Especially when that victim is one them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: this covers some pretty dark adult subject matter, such as rape – if you are not into that sort of thing then please don't read. It's rated M for a reason, remember that, please.
> 
> Disclaimer 2: I own any non recognizable characters – anyone you recognize from the show Castle obviously belongs to them and I am just borrowing them. I'll return them. Just…slightly warped.
> 
> A/N: This is not a shippy fic in that sense. At the very heart of it is a mystery/suspense and definitely angsty. If that is what you are looking for than turn back now.
> 
> A/N 2: yay my first castle fic! – Coincidentally enough, this is also my first 'procedural'
> 
> Please read and review!!!!

Chapter 1

Kate Beckett fell asleep on the couch of her New York Loft Apartment, she fell asleep watching an old rerun of twilight zone; but when she woke up it wasn't the bright blue screen that was waking her up, it was someone sitting on her legs. Someone heavy, and for a half a second, she thought she was dreaming. A dark figure loomed over her, his hands roamed her body freely and she realized that she wasn't dreaming at all. Sick dread knotted in her stomach. She tried to sit up and fight, but her face was met with a hard punch to it, making her head snap back and slam painfully against the arm of the couch. "Lay the fuck down" his voice was deep, masculine and robotic, like he was somehow trying to remember word for word what he had to say and how to say it. Was he following a script?

"Don't do this." She struggled against his weight "Look, I'm a cop! You don't have to do whatever you're thinking. Just get up and walk away and no one would be the wiser," she promised.

He snorted behind the ski mask he wore that covered his face. His pants, turtle neck and gloves made sure that she couldn't identify him in any way or mark him for details; he was a definite professional at this. All she had to do was keep calm and rational; her professional side would take over eventually and make sure she got out of this safe and sound.

This was a walking cliché.

She hated clichés.

She hated being attacked in her own home more.

Kate didn't see the box cutter until he took out of his denim pocket, she fought again and got hit hard "don't…" she begged, her voice didn't sound like it was hers.

He violently cut her out of her tank top using a box cutter. Biting one of her breasts hard enough to leave teeth marks and bruising around the area, Kate screamed and found her boy shorts shoved in her mouth. Not caring if they were choking her or not, all he needed was for her to shut the fuck up so he could finish. She laid there not being able to fight; he had almost fifty pounds on her and she couldn't move even though she desperately wanted to.

God she needed to.

She watched in terror as his hands cocooned around the shaft of his flaccid penis trying to jerk himself to life. It was the longest five minutes of her life. When she realized that he was still flaccid and going to rape her anyway, she closed her eyes and pleaded with herself, "Fuck. Please tell me this isn't happening." She felt a sharp and horrifying pain as she was penetrated with the box cutter that was just used to cut her out of her clothes.

The searing pain of her vagina being cut and ripped apart was too much for her body to handle. When Kate woke up, she had no idea how much time had passed.

She sat up to feel her thighs covered in blood. She knew she had to go to the hospital, though she was surprised she didn't die from the lack of blood. Her thighs and stomach bruised, the patch of dark hair covering her nether regions was bloody and tangled from all the blood and ejaculate. I guess he did finish, she thought. She swallowed and put her hand against her body to figure out if she was still bleeding as she grabbed for her phone. The first number she called was Lainey, but Esposito picked up and she quickly hung up the phone as she didn't want anyone on the team to know of her ordeal. In her mind, she knew she should've called an ambulance, but her fingers grazed another number on her cell phone before she passed out again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Captain Montgomery sighed and hung up the phone. It was the hospital. One of his own was in there at the hands of a criminal and he had no choice but to tell his team.

He thought about hunting down the creep himself, but he knew that wasn't the answer to anything, he knew that wouldn't have stopped Kate's nightmares; he knew he had to be strong.

He thought about calling his own daughter. He couldn't.

He couldn't play friend or Dad, he had to play Captain and it killed him inside.

He saw Rick Castle walk in with an extra coffee from the coffee house downstairs for Kate like he did every morning. Montgomery rubbed his face again and walked over to his team. Now was a good a time as any.

"Morning," he said to bestselling mystery author Rick Castle, and Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito.

"Morning, did you see Beckett this morning?" Castle asked. It wasn't like Beckett to not be at her desk or in the coffee room, and if she was on a case she definitely would've called him.

Captain Montgomery nodded "that's." he paused "I need to talk to you three in my office," and with that he turned on a wing tipped heel and walked back in.

The author and the detectives looked at each other and frowned, Rick couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach. He followed the detectives in just as his phone went off he noticed the phone call was from his daughter so he decided to ignore it; whatever Montgomery had to tell them was more important that what his daughter currently had to say. Well for the next five minutes anyway.

"What's up captain, everything okay?" Javier Esposito asked as he took his usual position of leaning up against the filing cabinet.

"I just got off the phone with Manhattan General. Kate is in the hospital."

Rick frowned "is everything okay?" well that was a dumb question since she's in the hospital, but, Rick's mind was cloudy.

Montgomery shook her head "this morning, around three in the morning, Detective Beckett was attacked in her apartment. She was beaten and..." he took a breath "sexually assaulted." He could feel the mood in his office switch and Montgomery couldn't tell if it was anger or some sort of form of weird collective nausea.

Castle looked like he was going to be sick; Ryan swallowed "is…she okay, I mean the hospital, that's pretty bad right?"

Montgomery nodded "she needed a blood transfusion, she's in surgery."

"Surgery?" The men cussed briefly.

"I don't know the full details. Just that she's in surgery and what I just told you and that they are waiting for the results of the rape kit. We know what the backlog is like, so don't hold your breaths," He sighed lack of funding hurt them in a lot of cases, but, when it was one of their own it was different.

Captain Montgomery gauged the reactions of the men in front of them; they weren't keeping it together so well. It was different when you knew the victim. It was different when you worked in homicide and you didn't have to worry about living victims.

Rick was sick in the garbage can by Montgomery's desk "sorry" he whispered. Rape and sexual assault was something he never could get over. Richard Castle could plan out the most gruesome murder – Head in the microwave sure; skin peeled off with acid, bring it.

He had no problem getting into the head off murderer's and what made them tick, but there was something about Rapists that he couldn't get into their head; maybe because he thought sex was a beautiful act that was to be shared between two people. Maybe it was because he didn't think that sex should've been used as a source of power. Having sex with someone shouldn't hurt. Fetishes and BDSM aside, but even that was consensual.

Captain Montgomery shook his head "its fine, son;" he said gently instead of using his surname like he usually did. Montgomery rubbed his face "this is one of ours guys, I don't have to tell you what this means. I can talk to sex crimes if you want to investigate this case yourselves, just say the word. There is no pressure, if you don't want to investigate it there are no questions asked. Understood?"

The men looked at each other and nodded it was understood, it was an unwritten rule, someone hurt their little family, someone hurt their, for a lack of a better term; sister.

They would come to the bottom of who hurt Kate Beckett, Even if they had to do it by the book and treat it like any other investigation.

In a weird way Kate was lucky, this is their investigation by choice, provided they got permission from sex crimes. The only reason why this was true was because Kate was a member of their department.

This wasn't a homicide.

Not yet, once they found the attacker they couldn't make any promises.

Montgomery was thinking the same thing, but he couldn't say anything for obvious reasons; he cleared his throat "good, I'll call Jim and tell him what's going on, keep me apprised please gentlemen."

The only thing they could was nod in agreement; the news still setting in, Castle's phone went off again notifying him that he had a text. Sadly he looked at the phone a part of him hoping that it was Kate.

It was Alexis: Dad, at the hospital with Grandma. We got a phone call. Kate's here hurry up! It's really bad!

Castle shook his head, so much for keeping office work at the office "I guess I don't have to call Alexis and tell her I'm not going to make it for lunch."

"Oh?" Ryan asked when they walked out of the office.

"I just got a text from her, I forgot that I'm one of Kate's "in case of emergency contacts" I guess the hospital called or Kate called or something, but, Alexis and my mom are at the hospital with her."

Javier shook his head "oh man, I guess its better that she's not alone."

They piled into a car and headed to the hospital, all three men deep in their own thoughts.

Castle thought of how Alexis got the phone call and not Rick, but more things were important than semantics.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Rick's heart dropped when he was told by the nurses that not only was their detective in surgery. It would most likely be that she would be a member of the Intensive Care Unit once the surgery was complete. The fact that she was brought in already unconscious with a massive blood loss, probably wasn't a good sign.

Alexis was sitting in a chair by the door of the operating theater reading a book by Jane Austen. Martha paced back and forth looking through a cell phone that from where Rick was standing he knew that it wasn't her cell phone.

Esposito and Ryan went to go see if they could find any information about what was going on with Kate with the nurses in the surgery ward

It was important, if they wanted to keep this case with in homicide that the top homicide team in the 12th kept as professional as possible; and because of that it was best that Castle didn't help them on the interrogations this time. He would gladly help them at the prescient but that was different.

Rick walked up to his daughter and his mother "hey guys! You hear anything?" he hugged his mother and kissed Martha's hair when she hugged him back.

Alexis looked up from her book "she's still in surgery; the hospital reversed the last two digits of your cell number and called me by mistake. When they said that they were looking for you because of Detective Beckett, I knew I should've gave them you're number, Dad, but it was Beckett! I…I didn't know what was wrong, but I didn't think she should be here by herself." She shut her book and walked into her dad's waiting arms "I don't know why she's here though. We aren't family, and they won't tell us anything. Dad, did I do something wrong? Is she okay?"

One of the reasons why Rick loved Alexis - aside from he was genetically and biologically obligated, as he usually teased her - it was because: as mature and unaffected by things, as she usually appeared to be she was often still filled with childlike innocence. Still willing to please her father and those she cared about, filled with questions, always wanted to bide by the rules, sometimes it seemed like it actually caused her physical pain and torment if she broke some sort of 'rule' in the Castle household. God help her if she broke a miner rule set out by the city ordinance.

"I was going to call her father to let her know that she was here, but I wasn't sure what to tell him, what's going on, Richard?"

He rubbed his face and sat the girls down "okay…Kate was raped today in her apartment."

He studied their faces "I…hmm…h..." Alexis was quiet. She was trying to form a thought. Her face paled slightly; she put her face in her hands and took a few deep breaths.

Martha rubbed her back and looked at her son with a thousand questions in her eyes.

"We don't know anything. Other than that, she's in surgery. And, that she was hurt, really, really bad."

Alexis' eyes snapped open, her hands came down from her face "so, then do what you guys do. Go find out, Dad!" she sighed. "look I know it's not T.V, I know it's not going to be your case, but, you guys worked on kidnapping cases with the FBI and stuff. You guys can work with sex crimes on this, right?" she was anxious and Rick could tell that she wanted to help, but had no idea where to start.

Rick nodded "homicide is going to look into it," he promised, he knew his mother seen Kate Beckett like the daughter that she never had; Alexis seen Kate like her the big sister a beautiful teenage daughter actually needed.

Martha Rogers, Broadway diva that she was, was a mother and grandmother first, despite what Richard Castle teased her about. The first thing Martha always did was protect her cubs, and as far as this Broadway-diva-mother-lion was concerned, Detective Beckett was one of her cubs. "Richard," she frowned "what can we do?"

The surgeon came out a few minutes later and he sighed resting a hand on his mom's knee "do what you do best, mom, just watch over her. She's going to need it, we don't know the details. Yet, but, I get the feeling this isn't something that we at the 12 can help her with."

Martha nodded in agreement and watched Rick, walk over to the other two detectives and the surgeon.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It was quiet on the way back to the prescient, they just finished talking to the doctor's, the injuries were bad enough that in order to stop Kate from fading out on them on the surgical table while trying to stop the internal bleeding they had to perform a partial hysterectomy; Kate was still asleep. It was her team…her family that found out before she didn't even have an inkling that there was something wrong with her.

She was still asleep and they didn't even get a chance to get her statement from her, to say hi to her, say they'd be there for her through everything.

A part of Esposito wanted to call Lainey because he'd know that Lainey would probably be better to empathize with her then they could, but he knew that he had to respect Kate's privacy.

Javier rubbed the back of his neck at the red light when, Kevin turned on the radio to fill the awkward silence as all the men were deep in thought "I'm going to love you through it" by Martina McBride came on, Kevin blinked and turned it off relishing in silence instead.

"Why did they tell us that? I mean from an investigator's point of view I don't see the point of them telling us something so personal."

Kevin half shrugged "sometimes we get told personal things like that about the case to tell or to show us how bad the victim actually suffered, like the fact that the victim had no chance of fighting or like he was alive when the fire engulfed him. Sometimes it makes us detectives fight harder to find the perpetrator who did it. If we know what was really going happened. Sometimes it helped us come up with a motive or maybe even a profile. That's how it works in homicide anyway; I assume it's the same psychology in SVU or narcotics or something."

Esposito looked at his partner "you know a lot about this stuff," he pulled into the prescient parking lot and put the car.

Kevin was slightly bashful, and Castle could see the blush running along the outer conch of his ears even from the back seat, "it's not a big deal. I worked in sex crimes for a few months after I got out of the academy, I wanted to see if I could fast track in being detective, so I took a couple of profiler cases that Quantico offers for those in law enforcement that wants to take them."

Esposito nodded and made note of what his partner just told him "why you switch to homicide?"

There was a full twenty six seconds of actual dead silence before Kevin Ryan answered. Kevin opened his mouth and closed it again before he fully answered "because when you have to tell a woman the reason why she is losing custody of their five year old, is because her daddy is using said kid as his own personal sex slave and said wife refuses to leave said 'daddy,' it changes a person. A lot more than what I was expecting," he started to get out of the car; a sure sign that he was done with the conversation. "I'll get this to wear it has to go" he realized he was still holding the rape kit in his hands, he gave the paper to Esposito to sign to change the chain of command for evidence and wit his signature in hand, Kevin Ryan walked back into the prescient.

"Did you know anything about that?" Richard asked.

"I knew that he was in sex crimes, I didn't know why he left. It takes a special person to be able to work these kinds of cases, its worse when it's someone we know-I guess, I never worked them, I was strictly a S.W.A.T kind of guy, you know? Don't have to worry about the victims talking."

Rick nodded, the human part of him did. The writer part of him – the guy who followed the 12th around and was doing this for research for his last couple of books for the last three years, was interested in the psychology behind being a detective. He admitted as a novelist there were things that he couldn't bring himself to write about. Stuff like murdered kids, stuff like rape; but maybe it was the writer in him that brought out the sick fascination with the human psyche. He often found himself watching his daughter Alexis sleep or the blank screen on his word processing program and wondering how sick and depraved humanity got and how sick and depraved he was for finding an interest and getting a paycheck because of it.

"I'm not going to lie, sometimes I wonder how you guys do this for so long," Rick finally said to Javier, not exactly sure when they got out of the car and started walking off of the elevator and down towards their desks.

Javier shook his head "not gonna lie, bro, sometimes I wonder the same damn thing."

Ryan looked up from the photos he was looking at his desk; they were the photos that the crime scene investigators took, and photos of all of the evidence that was taken from the scene were there too, the evidence was either in the DNA labs or in lock up already.

It was customary for detectives to be at the crime scene and they knew that they were going there in a few days, but it would've been easier to get a preliminary outline before they went so they knew what to expect and to prepare themselves for it. The detectives and the author has been over to Kate's so many times that they would have been able to know if anything was missing that they would've recognized, it was all they could've done until they got a chance to talk to Kate and get her statement and a timeline.

Their hands were tied.

They hated this case and they were only two hours in.

Javier patted Kevin on the shoulder "find anything?"

"Yeah actually" he was studying a photo of her apartment's front door

"Really? What?"

"This is Kate's front door to her apartment, you see what I see?"

He passed the photo of the door to the guys, who studied it "the building its self was an office building originally but it was renovated into a bunch of loft apartments in the 80s or 90s, one of the massive renovations to the building they had to do was fire-retardant doors. They're painted like wood to give that homey feel though, but those are completely fire-rated for at least 20 minutes, which is just enough time. Apparently. For the firefighter's to get there," Castle said and then paused when he felt their eyes on him "what? I read the literature and was with her when she was thinking on buying it."

"Okay, but what do you notice about the door?" Kevin urged him.

"No, it looks pretty intact," Castle genuinely sure what he seeing.

"Exactly!"

It finally dawned on Javier "the door's intact!"

Castle blinked "you know I'm pretty sure you can sit there all day and emphasize different words all you want and it won't mean anything different."

"Okay, you been on homicide investigations, you've seen doors before, sometimes their all kicked in and stuff, right?" Kevin urged him slowly.

Rick nodded "yeah, I mean isn't it like a really important factor to know if there was a struggle or not,"

"Right!" both men nodded

"So…if the door in this case is exactly the same way it would be on a regular basis that means…." The light turned on in his eyes, finally! There was someone home "ooooooh!"

"Finally! Exactly- there was no damage to the front door which suggests-"

"Either Kate knew her attacker or he at the very least had a key!" Castle finished Kevin's thoughts and folded his arms over his chest "I knew I'd get it eventually," he was feeling kind of smug.

"Good job, Kev, actually, I'm going to put it on the desk right here right now, I think you should lead the investigation."

"What? Why? No it should be you!" Actually it should've been Kate, but Kate wasn't here so that was kind of redundant.

"Nah, Bro, you have the most experience in cases like these and you're the most likely to keep a level head if this goes belly up or if something goes wrong."

Deep down Kevin knew that he was write, out of the "family" of homicide detectives that were Beckett, Esposito and himself, although Kate is usually the lead detective what Javier said was actually true, he just wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility. If this investigation went belly up it would've been his fault.

His fault why Kate wouldn't have gotten justice for what happened to her.

Kevin shook the macabre thoughts out of his brain and was going to open his mouth to object when Roy Montgomery popped his head into the bullpen "gentleman, I just got off the phone with the hospital, Beckett's awake whenever you want to head on over for her statement."

Kevin looked at Javier and Rick and rubbed his face "Okay I'll go." He paused "Espo, take Castle with you to her apartment see if you guys can find anything, Castle knows more about Kate personally than we do."

"Really?" Castle asked.

Ryan nodded "you're her partner, like me and Esposito, partners always know their partners better; it's why if something happens with officers and they become dirty cops or whatever, Internal Affairs talk to the partners first. Sometimes I see Esposito more than I'll see Jenny. Am I mistaken with you and Kate? I know you guys aren't tangled romantically, but-"

Rick shook his head "no, no, you're right," he clapped Kevin on the shoulder and followed Javier out.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Javier was driving the blue ford that all the other cops drove, the same run of the mill unmarked blue car, usually it was associated in movies and television with undercover drug cops. Truth was it was a little less inconspicuous then a car that had NYPD marked all over it with the sirens running all hot.

"You're quiet," Javier pointed out, his hands weren't on ten and two on the steering wheel; instead he had one hand on the wheel and one hand on a disposable paper coffee cup they liked visiting every once in a while.

Rick shrugged "thinking?"

"About?"

"I read somewhere that rapists usually rape the people the same race as them, so if a Latino guy was going around raping people in New York then he'd be going around raping Latina girls…"

Javier nodded "there are probably exceptions to that rule, but, yeah I heard the same thing, what about it?"

"Well, that and since we know that either Kate knew the person or they had a key…"

He smiled at a red light "look man, I know what you're thinking, and I know you didn't do it.

"How do you know?"

"You forget? You puked when Montgomery told us what happened. If you did it, that wouldn't have been your reaction. Besides; we've known you for too long. You'd kill the guy who hurt Beckett; it's not in your nature. If it makes you feel better though, where were you between the hours of…I can't even ask you that I don't even have a time frame" he frowned, "well isn't this getting better and better?"

"Doctor motor-cycle boy."

"Huh?

"That Doctor Josh guy that Kate's been seeing, I don't know if he has a key but…"

Javier rubbed his neck, never mind that he might be in the suspect pool, he didn't even know if Josh knew what happened, "yep, better and better."

Detective Kevin Ryan had almost a year's worth of experience interviewing Rape victims, God he hated that word, Rape…Survivors? Was that better? No matter what you called them he had over a year's experience interviewing them, all different: races, abilities, language barriers, no language barriers.

Anyone who said it got easier listening to the stories of what has been done to the victim/survivor is a lying sack of shit and needed to be kicked in their lucky charms.

It was definitely easier interviewing murder suspects. At least in that case, there weren't any survivor trauma or guilt to handle.

But, here he was, sitting on the bed at Kate's feet, notebook in hand, pen poised and ready to take notes.

He studied her; her body language and behavior. He studied the lack of defensive wounds on her hands, the bruise forming around her eye, the goose egg lump and the cut on her forehead.

He studied the way her hands shook as she took a sip of water, the way her lips pursed together. Open and closed. Open and closed again. Like a goldfish in a bowl before she started to speak.

"Take your time, start from the beginning. What's the first thing that you remember?"

"Wow you're taking this serious. 'What's the first thing you remember?'" she laughed bitterly "guess its true; guess I'm the victim today huh?"

"It's different this time, you're alive Kate, and now…what do you remember?"

She closed her eyes he could see the crease in her brow as she tried to remember "it was late," she started to speak about it "I was on the couch trying to read…I couldn't get into the book I was reading so I decided to turn on the television. I was watching an episode of twilight zone it was the one where: the plane lands at the airport I think."

Kevin nodded and found himself writing it down, it might have seemed trivial but it would have established a timeline, he nodded "okay what else?"

"I was kind of in an out;" she shook her head, she knew this wasn't important, but she needed to get through everything "I don't know how much time past. I think the only reason why I woke up was because I felt this weight on my legs. I woke up and he was leaning over me, he was wearing all black. A mask. Gloves. His hands were roaming over my body, I tried to fight and he told me to 'lay the fuck down'" she bit her bottom lip "why can I remember what he told me? Why can I remember what he said to me?" her voice squeaked and Kevin held her hand gently "why can I hear it as if he's talking to me right now?" she held her ears for a second and Kevin thought about getting one of the nurses until she shook her head and started speaking again.

"Was the show still on when you woke up?"

She shook her head "I'm not sure if anything was on, I was too busy fighting him; too busy telling him that I was a cop. That if he stopped then I wouldn't press charges. He could walk away, I was serious Kevin. If he stopped I wouldn't have pressed charges. I just would've woken up in the morning and went to work like nothing happened."

Kevin nodded "I believe you, Kate….anything else?"

"He was wearing" she closed his eyes "he was completely covered; he had a ski mask on and gloves. Even if I wanted to scratch him, even if I did it wouldn't have worked. He was wearing a ski mask, long sleeve sweater, long pants… He cut off my tank top, he had a knife," she swallow she was starting to break "he…bit my breast," she rubbed the bite mark through the gown that she was wearing like she was feeling it happen to her again, "he cut off my shorts, stuffed the tank top in my mouth…"

"Your pants?"

"I…I wasn't wearing anything; but this pair of boy shorts and a tank top. No bra," she swallowed she was wringing her hands.

"Anything else?"

Her voice cracked, her forehead wrinkled and she tried not to cry "I...Kev...don't...please…I..." Kevin was like her little brother; She didn't want to go into brutal details about what did and didn't happen. Sometimes she thought Kevin was so innocent, despite his background as a cop, she didn't want to tarnish that; "besides, isn't this something SVU would handle?"

"They're letting us handle it because it's…you…because it's you, because you're a cop."

She nodded "please don't make me tell you?" she cried, big fat saline tears ran down her cheeks "please? Just let me forget…" she begged.

"Let you forget what, Kate? Tell me, what do you want to forget? What did he do to you?" he felt like an ass for forcing her, but both Kevin and Kate knew that the more information that they got out of her the more they could tell who they were looking for, if it was someone that she knew, or if it was just a random act of violence.

Between the tears and her trying to remember what happened it took Detective Ryan almost 20 minutes to get out the details from Kate; but, he did it. Every excruciating painful detail of everything that he's done and said to her, but he got it.

Kevin spent the last few minutes of their visit; rocking her, soothing her tears, he kissed her hair a bit and rubbed her back. He didn't want to leave her knowing that she was upset, but he also knew that Martha and Alexis were outside and they were trying to get a hold of her Dad, so she wouldn't have been completely alone.

When Kevin decided to leave, ten minutes after that the only thing that was ringing in his ears was "they had to give me a hysterectomy Kevin. The damage was so bad, they couldn't save it."

He had had to pretend that he didn't know. It quietly killed him. Kevin seen some pretty nasty murders around as his years as a homicide detective, even as a street cop he's heard some things that he pushed around and far out of his head that he probably thought that he forgot about now, but, he knew that comment….that was going to haunt him for the rest of his days.

Kevin let Martha and Alexis back into the room to help the crying and almost hysterical Kate Beckett.

He fought the urge to be sick.

Javier and Rick walked into Kate's large loft apartment. It was impeccably neat despite it being a crime scene, and her couch was covered in blood where the attack happened.

Rick closed his eyes and swallowed when he seen the blood stained couch, he wondered if she fought, if she screamed for help, if she cried at all. What was she thinking about? Did she lose consciousness?

The Latino detective made a sweep quickly to see if the CSI's missed anything. They knew that it was a cop's apartment they were sweeping so they knew to be extra careful. Still, it was easy to miss something tiny that may have been deemed as insignificant.

As far as they could tell, everything was clean, nothing was out of the ordinary and everything played out like they hypothesized at the prescient: There was no struggle, either he let himself in with a key or she let him in.

They were stuck, with no timeline and no suspects, things were getting more and more difficult.

Javier picked up the phone and pressed redial to see what was the last number she dialled going out was Richard watch Javier's face and frowned "you okay?"

"The last number she called was Lainey's" he muttered "I was over last night, Lainey was in the shower and the phone rang. She told me to pick it up in case it was the office and I picked it up and said 'hello' but there was no sound. I figured someone must've pocket dialled or something and I didn't think anything of it. I went back into the room. I...what if she was trying to call us after it happened?"

Rick patted Javier's shoulder awkwardly it was one of those weird and few moments where the multi-bestselling author had nothing to say. No words to describe that horrific feeling in the pit of his stomach; the one that he knew where both Javier and Kevin were both feeling felt. The author nodded "yeah...I just, apparently the doctor's screwed up our numbers and called Alexis' cell instead of mine. I have no idea what would be going through my head right now if I was the one that got the call. I mean I know I'd rather be dealing with it then Alexis, but, still. You know? Shit."

Javier nodded "I keep thinking about that song, 'love you through it' or whatever it was called the one that was playing when we got in the car today, how fitting you know?"

Rick didn't answer.

The men made one last sweep around the apartment, "her computer's gone?"

"CSI's took it just in case they could find something,"

"How do you know?"

"It was on their evidence log sheet thing."

"Right," They were just getting ready to leave when Castle stopped "her super!"

"What?"

"Her Superintendent, building manager, whatever it is that you want to call him, he'd have the keys to the apartment wouldn't he?"

The Detective licked his lips "I mean, I guess. Mine does, in case something happens and I'm at work or something."

"Yeah mine does too. Okay, picture it. A single woman living alone in New York, a lot of the people that live in the building, like knowing that there's a cop living here, because they feel safe. The super is really shy, probably older. Probably doesn't say two words to anyone. Beckett's really friendly with him, but doesn't realize that a little extra smile or an offer to do security around the building or something after Mrs. Dubitzky's dog downstairs started barking in a real weird tone. Beckett's Super thinks that she's being friendly because she likes him, decides to invite himself over..He gets a little touchy feely..."

"There's too much probably in that theory of yours for us to get a probable cause warrant."

Rick made face "figured."

"It's not too bad though, maybe we can go downstairs and talk to Mrs. Dubitzky maybe she was walking her dog and saw something."

"Wait there's actually a Mrs. Dubitzky?"

Javier Esposito stopped and looked at Castle like he was going to hit him "you just said!"

"It was a theory," Rick shrugged.

"That's sick man, real sick. You're a little too good at that you know?"

Rick shrugged noncommittally "eh, it's a gift." but, it did give them somewhere to start.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Javier and Rick walked into the prescient there was a picture of Kate on the 'murder board' and Ryan was writing on the time line, "You find anything?" the Irish Detective was writing the time line on the board.

"Yeah actually," Javier sighed and told them about the phone call to Lainey.

Ryan made a note of it "what time was that about?"

"11:30? 11:45? 'Round there."

He nodded "okay Kate said that she was watching a twilight episode. There was a marathon on, and the episode that she described started at 8:00 and she woke up with the weight on her legs, so that puts our time line around 8-midnight, just to be safe."

"What did he do to her?"

Kevin shook his head "it's not important."

"It could tell us who we're looking for," Rick urged.

He closed his eyes and told them every detail that Kate told him, he wrote some of the main points on the board while he was at it "we're probably looking for a white male" he continued not looking at their faces.

"He is between the ages of 25 an 32 years old, he probably has a criminal record but it probably wasn't as a rapist in the past, most likely this is his first rape and if he does have a record it would be for something like a public-order offense and it probably escalated into rape when the other crimes didn't get him off anymore. He probably has a juvenile record which would be hard to access. There is a high probability that she knew him and probably isn't aware of it; probably someone that is so plain looking that she wouldn't even notice that he was around. The fact that he uses a weapon means he's a sadistic rapist.

"For these rapists, they have a sexual association with anger and power; he might even be a member of a local anger management class – he'll think that his job is attached to how macho and how manly he actually is, his paycheck is definitely attached to his penis. He probably isn't making as much as he thinks that he should be or is taking a job lesser than he is, and that's what is making him angry.

"Aggression and the infliction of pain itself are eroticized. For this rapist, sexual excitement is associated with the inflicting of pain upon his victim. The offender finds the intentional maltreatment of his victim intensely gratifying and takes pleasure in the victim's torment and suffering; he finds the victim's struggling with him to be an erotic experience.

"Sadistic rape usually involves extensive, prolonged torture and restraint. Sometimes, it can take on ritualistic or other bizarre qualities. The rapist may use some type of instrument or foreign object to penetrate his victim. Sexual areas of the victim's body become a specific focus of injury or abuse; in this case: her breast, uterus and…" he cleared this throat.

"The sadistic rapist's assaults are deliberate, calculated and preplanned; Kate said that it sounded like what he was saying was scripted. There are websites on the internet that can sometimes read as a how-to on how to rape and torture someone; I wouldn't be surprised if he's a member of one of these sites. His assaults are deliberate, calculated and preplanned. They will often wear a disguise or will blind fold their victims; in this case it's the mask, the gloves and the clothes that disguise his identity from her. I want to be very clear on something, in most cases, while a woman is penetrated with a knife, it would mean that they are impotent or suffer erectile dysfunction, this is not the case. We know this because he did ejaculate on and in her." He looked at Esposito and Castle and he found his eyes meeting to other cops and detectives that stopped and listened, when did they get here? Were they listening the whole time? He wondered briefly, he coughed "any questions?"

No one said anything at first, everyone just kind of stared at the quiet Detective Kevin Ryan, the small Irish Detective that Kate Beckett took under her wing, no one seen him be so assertive before; so in control of the situation him interrogating someone as an aside.

"Are we still going that he somehow had a key or had a way to get in to the building?" Javier asked referring to the no damage that was done to the door, "because Castle had a couple of theories."

Kevin fought the urge to groan but told Rick to continue "it makes more sense, actually now that we heard that profile; if we go on the basis, that he is a white male in that age range, his penis is attached to his check, probably knows Kate et cetera…I think we…er…you should look into Dr. Josh Davidson. He fits the bill, and has a key."

Kevin played with the Marker that came with the white board "okay, you're right, actually Castle, that isn't a bad idea to be honest, I did get that text from Javier mentioning it and I did talk to him while I was at the hospital, after talking with Kate and he does alibi out. I like your thinking though Castle. Keep doing it, I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need that creativity right now."

Javier asked what was supposed to be a simple question, of course just as he said that, a cute 20 something year old auburn haired civilian secretary got off the phone with a scratch pad in hand, she walked over to the men "do…any of you know a detective Ryan?" her soft spoken voice was just heard over the bullpen's noise and they wondered briefly how she ever passed the academy.

"I'm Detective Ryan."

"Oh, sorry" she blushed.

"S'okay what is it?"

"The CSI's called and their backed up because someone found a mass grave in Poughkeepsie and…well they aren't sure when they are going to be able to get the results of the evidence for your case."

The men groaned and flopped down "yep. Better and better," Javier muttered.

"You know that we have an actual time line, maybe it'll be better now to go and canvass the area see if anyone seen anyone suspicious, I mean her area, between 8 and midnight, someone had to have seen something, it's not like she lives in a bad area; there are a few construction sites around, maybe someone came back after hours?"

Kevin wrote a few notes on the board "okay take a couple of officer's with you, have them help you canvass the neighborhood."

"I...I...I d-d-d-didn't do n-nothin' wrong," there was a white man in his early thirties across from Javier and Ryan in the interrogation room; his sandy brown blonde hair and goatee was oily like he hadn't showered for a few days. He was a large man about 290 pounds if Ryan had to guess and easily could have killed someone without thinking about it. Killed someone yes. Rape someone? He didn't seem like the type.

His thought patterns were slow and like the mind of a child. They've been in this situation before and they needed to take it nice and slow; if he didn't do it, then he might know something and wasn't aware of it.

"We didn't say you did anything wrong, Bobby," Detective Esposito started out slowly, he was shy despite his size and was really cooperative and wanted it to stay like that.

"Then how come I'm here? Was it because you knew that I liked sirens?" he rocked for a second and made the loud siren screaming like children often made "wowowowowow!" he giggled softly, childlike, and it was such a weird sound coming out of someone so large. "How come you didn't put them on when I was in the back? Can I keep these?" his hands were cuffed behind his back; but his hands and wrists were so large they couldn't use the metal bracelet handcuffs.

Javier shook his "sorry, we didn't know that you liked sirens. Maybe next time we can put them on for you okay?"

Robert "Bobby" Cesaretti smiled obviously happy about this; "okay, you know my friend Kate? She's detective too. I know her she's my friend."

Detective Kevin Ryan nodded his head "we know Kate, that's why you're here, we were wondering if you could help us."

"I know Kate. I fix things in the building and Kate smiles at me all pretty. Gord lets me fix things in the building and my social worker, Keisha, says it's for work so I don't have to pay all my rent, cause it's expensive. Kate, she's my friend, she's a detective like you. She smiles at me all pretty. She smiles nice. K...Kate's my friend. One time Gord yelled at me and she told Gord not to yell at me cause it wasn't my fault; and she helped me fix why Gord was yelling at me, Kate's nice. Kate's my friend."

"Why did Gord yell at you?"

"Cause I made a mess, I dropped some screws from the tool box and Kate helped me pick them up, she was nice. I said thank you, like Keisha taught me and she smiled at me and told me not to worry about it. Her name is Kate, she's a detective do you know her?"

Kevin and Javier nodded "yeah she's our friend too, do you know that Kate was hurt last night?"

"Is night when the sun is down, right? When it's dark outside?"

Ryan nodded "right."

"I know she got in the hospital" he paused "was it because she got hurt? Kate told me when someone is hurt to call 911. I didn't know she was hurt, I thought she was sleeping," He rocked a bit; his blue green eyes looked haunted, like he was disturbed by something.

Kevin and Javier looked at each other and sighed inwardly, they liked the kid, personally because, well, he was nice and he was the first suspect in the last month where they didn't have to chase through the streets of New York.

"Are you sure you don't want a lawyer, Bobby?" Kevin asked; let it be known that they didn't violate his rights by not asking him.

"I didn't do nothin' wrong, I'm always in Kate's apartment. I have a key, sometimes I hafta go in n' fix things when she's at work. Sometimes she lets me come in and watch T.V if I'm good. Sometimes Kate cooks me dinner."

"That's nice of her. What happened last night?"

"Last night?"

"Yeah, remember, you said that you didn't know Kate was hurt," it was important not to lead the suspect but, Kevin wasn't even completely sure that Bobby did anything.

The only reason why they were talking to him here at the precinct was because out of the families that they talked to, the only "anything weird" that happened the night that Kate was attacked, was that, Bobby was around Kate's apartment after normal work hours.

"I walked by Kate's apartment because I was on the roof, and her apartment door was open, I went into see if she was okay. She's a detective and she knows better, because sometimes our area isn't too safe all the time, even though she's a detective. She's my friend and I don't want nothin' to happen to her. She looked like she was sleepin' on her sofa. I shut her door and locked it." He shrugged.

Kevin stopped for a minute; he put down his pen and leaned closer "how did you lock the door, Bobby?"

"With my Key," he took a key fob off of the keeper on his pants and there attached was several keys, each top of the key was tagged with a little plastic ring "this one is for the storage lockers, this one is for the underground parking in case sometimes the automatic doors don't open." He separated two more "this one is for Gord's office," he took the purple one off, "but I'm not supposed to use that one." This one is for the elevator when people move in and out," he flipped one more over "then this one opens all of the doors to the apartments in case of an emergency. An emergency is when something is happening you can't control and the tenant, that's a person that lives in the apartment, isn't home. Like a flood or a fire or a wall collapsing." He seemed really proud of remembering that, like it was drilled in his brain over and over again.

The door opened behind a young officer poked his head in with a folder in his hand "Detectives, you might want to see this?" he waved from behind them; Kevin nodded to Javier to go see what she wanted.

Javier read the file and looked up "where'd you find this?"

"On the computer did I do something wrong?" he looked nervous "I was looking for something on the Sharon's case and this came up too."

The staged whispered for a few more minutes and Javier turned around to talk to Kevin at the same time he heard Bobby say "Gord's the only one other than me to has the keys, Gord trusts me."

Javier sat down slowly and slid the file to Kevin, open, so all Kevin had to do was glance down.

Kevin took the hint and looked down and he fought to keep the look on his face neutral. They got him.


	7. Chapter 7

Epilogue

It was three days before Kate was out of the hospital. She was more thankful than what she could say in words for Alexis and Martha staying with her until she was ready to go home, those two women were taking turns for the last three days until she was ready to leave the hospital; Martha often took the days or at the very least the afternoons and Alexis often took the evenings.

Kate and Alexis spent more time getting to know each other over the last few days, in between Alexis studying and Kate's terror filled nightmares and flashbacks.

She talked to a shrink a few times, while she was assured that things will eventually fade into the back of her mind as if they never happened, right now they were fresh raw burns in her mind, some of the memories and flash backs were so bad it was like she was being assaulted all over again.

She was given something to sleep.

It wasn't worth the screams and scaring the nurses.

She didn't take it.

She didn't take anything for it.

Sometimes being awake was scary enough.

Amazingly, somehow her team saved the mystery of 'who did it' within the day that it happened. He was in intake, arraigned already and waiting for deportation.

Kevin Ryan's profile was half right: the man who did it was Danijel "Gord" Gordanski an immigrant who came over from his Eurasian country home to 'have the American dream' but it might have been to escape imprisonment over there as a war criminal.

His childhood growing up with his parents was horrifically abusive and some of the horrors he witnessed when he was little was just working as a 'how to become a criminal," he was in out of Juvenile detention facility for small crimes, the worse at the time being getting touchy feely with a girl and wouldn't take no for an answer, but, "technically" it wasn't rape.

What Kevin might have missed in the profile, was that 'Gord' had seen war and was recruited, not in the formal military but in a small violent militia group. His high intelligence could have gotten him rather far, especially with his interest in engineering; but war and violence won out.

He was a wanted war criminal often going into villages during the war and torturing and raping the women and killing the children in the families to get the men to join the militia group that he belonged to.

Rape was his control, and when the idea that he could use his body as a weapon, like his father often did to his mother, excited him.

His signature was often a knife to penetrate the orifice of his choosing, sometimes one. Sometimes all. He relished them fighting back; the nails in his skin, the screams and cries over the night air, the prayers on the lips of his newest victim made him even more excited. He didn't kill often, but the ones that didn't fight back; the ones that didn't let him get off he often beat until they were dead. Often getting off that way and often ejaculating on the corpse. Not being able to help himself.

When he came to the United States he thought that maybe he could find a job as a police officer with all of his background and the fact that he spoke several languages, nothing came up that he had a criminal record because everything was in Juvenile Detention and Overseas; but he couldn't pass the physical so he had to accept a lower remedial job of building superintendent.

That's where he saw Kate Bennett, a woman that wouldn't give him the time or day or even look in her general direction, a beautiful woman at that; and one that had a job that he wanted. He couldn't let that happen.

He lost control.

His plans were to do it over a few nights, make her beg for forgiveness, but the bitch didn't fight like he liked.

She was supposed to die, but he knew the little retard that she liked too much would cause a fuss.

The idea of seeing her suffer everyday was a better turn on anyway.

Kate was sitting in a coffee bar reading the file on her case that Kevin and Javier managed to get out of the precinct for her, because she was dumb enough to ask.

She fought the urge to throw but the perfectly buttered croissant that she just swallowed down, her big brown eyes closed, she quickly shut the folder and Javier rested a hand on her petite shaking shoulders "you okay?"

She took a shaky breath, glad that Castle was taking some time off and spending it with his family, her being attacked effected her a lot more than what he would admit; not that she'd blame him.

She admitted that she missed him though. She'll admit it, she needed him to be her rock more than ever right now – and it was just weird that he wasn't there when she needed him most.

The first time in three years. He wasn't there.

She took a breath "I'm not sure if I'm going to come back, guys."

Kevin took down the coffee from his lips, pretty sure if he took a sip of it at that moment it would be a pretty humorous spit take "what?" the ceramic mug tapped on the counter top

"Between therapies and….other healing, and…" she took a breath "I'm not saying for sure, I'm just saying...Maybe? Okay?"

Kevin opened her mouth and closed it again, Kate stopped him "I don't want to hear 'I can't do this job without you' cause you damn well proved that you could today, Kevin, I'm freaking proud of you;" she rested a hand on his not really ready for a hug.

Javier rested a hand on Kevin's shoulder in brotherly support and nodded it was obvious that the two would walk to the ends of the earth for each other.

Truth was they all would.

Kevin's cheeks went red with blush "thanks."

Detective Kate Beckett couldn't help it, she sighed softly trying to hide a smile behind her mug of coffee, enjoying the easy banter and how nothing seemed to change and somehow she knew that no matter if she returned to being a detective or not.

She was going to be okay.

Her family would make sure of it.


End file.
